Caltech News tagged with "brain"http://www.caltech.edu/news/tag_ids/9/rss.xml
enCaltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute Launch Major Neuroscience Initiativehttp://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-and-tianqiao-and-chrissy-chen-institute-launch-major-neuroscience-initiative-53124
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Initiative kicked off with $115 million gift from philanthropists Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo to establish a new institute and provide continuous funds for neuroscience research. Caltech to construct $200 million biosciences complex.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kathy Svitil</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-video file-video-youtube view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
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<h2 class="element-invisible">Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute Launch Major Neuroscience Initiative</h2>
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<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/grid_9/s3/media-youtube/PImd48bRR4w.jpg?itok=C7EPLYT6" width="450" height="300" alt="Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute Launch Major Neuroscience Initiative" /> </div>
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</a><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Caltech leadership and faculty join philanthropist Chrissy Luo to discuss how a neuroscience initiative and associated institute will create a unique environment and opportunities for interdisciplinary research that deepens our understanding of the brain.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Spearheaded by a $115 million gift from visionary philanthropists Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo, Caltech and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute are announcing the launch of a campus-wide neuroscience initiative to create a unique environment for interdisciplinary brain research. The goal of the new endeavor is to deepen our understanding of the brain—the most powerful biological and chemical computing machine—and how it works at the most basic level as well as how it fails because of disease or through the aging process.</p><p>Central to the initiative is the creation of the <a href="http://neuroscience.caltech.edu/">Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech</a>, where research investigations will span a continuum, from deciphering the basic biology of the brain to understanding sensation, perception, cognition, and human behavior, with the goal of making transformational advances that will inform new scientific tools and medical treatments.</p><p>The Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute at Caltech will be supported through the Chens' investment, which includes endowed funds to be used at the discretion of Caltech's leadership to support activities such as seeding new lines of research and supporting promising early-career faculty and scholars. In addition, as part of the neuroscience initiative, Caltech will construct a $200 million biosciences complex named in honor of the Chens that will include state-of-the-art facilities for the Chen Institute at Caltech.</p><p>Involving faculty from across the university's six academic divisions, the Chen Institute at Caltech will catalyze a campus-wide interdisciplinary community of neuroscientists, biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, computer scientists, and social scientists, all with the shared goal of understanding the fundamental principles that underlie brain function. The new building will be a nexus for neuroscience research on campus. It will comprise shared lab spaces and centralized areas that foster interaction and collaboration, amplifying and extending Caltech's long traditions in molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience. As part of the commitment to the partnership, Caltech will also co-invest significant resources to be deployed for the Chen Institute at Caltech's operations.</p><p>Chen and Luo, who are husband and wife, are deeply committed to supporting brain research to promote and improve the well-being of humanity. Caltech, with its intimate research environment and quantitative approach to probing the biological and computational complexity of the brain, as well as its robust history in the fields of neuroscience and fundamental biology, is uniquely poised to advance discoveries and to develop new insights that will lead to innovation and improvement in the human condition.</p><p>"It is a privilege to launch this vital collaborative effort with Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo," says Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "We share a vision with our cornerstone partners, the Chens, of translating insights into the fundamental biology, chemistry, and physics of the brain into a deeper understanding of how human beings perceive and interact with the world, and how technological interventions can improve the human experience."</p><p>Chen and Luo founded Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited in 1999, which became the largest online entertainment developer and publisher in China. The company has since transformed into a global private investment company. The couple are longtime philanthropists who have provided funding toward medical programs for children in China and Mongolia, supported education for underprivileged families, and contributed to disaster relief and rebuild efforts in China. Through collaborations with top global universities, the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute's brain research initiative will be focused on three areas: brain discovery, treatment, and development. This gift to Caltech represents the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute's first investment in this initiative and at an institution in the United States.</p><p>"Our involvement in the Internet and entertainment industries allowed us to witness the ability for technology advancements to influence human perception, as well as to observe the resultant meaningful effects on human behavior," says Tianqiao Chen, co-founder of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute. "However, there is little understanding about how the brain processes and connects what lies in between—sensation, perception, cognition, and action. We believe uncovering how the brain perceives, interprets, and interacts with the world is pivotal in so many aspects. It can shape groundbreaking industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality. It also plays a critical role in addressing social issues such as aging and behavioral deficiencies. It can even help answer many ultimate questions about life, such as its origin, purpose, and ending. This is the mission of our philanthropy, and we are dedicating an initial one billion dollars to this cause."</p><p>Chrissy Luo, co-founder of Shanda and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, adds, "We spent two years learning the subject from highly regarded global universities with whom we continue to have conversations. We chose Caltech as our first partner not just for their strong reputation as a leading research institution, but also for the admiration in their natural alignment with Shanda's culture, which is focused on creating excellence and discovery. We have enjoyed the strong working relationship with Caltech and are firmly confident of this partnership."</p><p>Caltech's pioneering work in neuroscience includes Seymour Benzer's discovery that the fruit fly <em>Drosophila melanogaster </em>could be used as a simple organism to study how genes influence behavior. It is also illustrated by Roger Sperry's Nobel Prize–winning discovery that the right and left sides of the human brain must communicate with each other for proper cognitive function. Caltech also has been the home of achievements in computational neuroscience such as the development of very-large-scale integrated circuits, their application to machine learning and machine vision, and the establishment in 1986 of the world's first graduate program in Computation and Neural Systems (CNS), which continues to this day.</p><p>"Everything that we are as human beings—our ability to see the world and ask questions about our universe—is rooted in the structure and function of our brains," says Steve Mayo (PhD '87), the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry and the William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering. "One of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time is to be able to unlock that structure and how it relates to function, which will have an enormous impact on the lives of real people."</p><p>David J. Anderson, the Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, will serve as the director of the new neuroscience institute, which will comprise five interdisciplinary research centers—including four new centers, founded through the gift from the Chens, and one existing center. Anderson will be named the inaugural holder of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience Leadership Chair.</p><p>The five centers are:</p><ul><li><strong>The T&amp;C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center</strong><br /><br />Led by Richard Andersen, Caltech's James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience, the T&amp;C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center will advance Caltech's work on a new generation of brain-machine interfaces. Caltech investigators have been developing devices that can communicate with and stimulate the brain. Recordings allow intentions to be read out to assist paralyzed people to perform fluid motions using robotic limbs simply by <em>thinking</em> about moving. Stimulation will allow the evocation of new perceptions, helping those who have lost sensation from paralysis or brain diseases. The T&amp;C Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center will support every aspect of this effort, from the investigation of the basic science of intention and perception to technology development and clinical studies.<br /> </li><li><strong>The T&amp;C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience</strong><br /><br />Under the direction of Colin Camerer, Caltech's Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics, the T&amp;C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience will investigate two important higher-order core functions of the human brain: making decisions and processing and guiding social interactions. Using the center's resources for computational modeling and brain imaging, researchers from different areas of science will collaborate to understand these two core functions. Their findings will help improve how we make personal decisions, allow researchers to design devices and interventions to benefit society, and inform new treatments for neurologically based disorders such as anxiety and autism.<br /> </li><li><strong>The T&amp;C Chen Center for Systems Neuroscience</strong><br /><br />The T&amp;C Chen Center for Systems Neuroscience—directed by Doris Tsao, Caltech professor of biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator—will address the challenge of understanding how a large group of neurons firing in concert gives rise to cognition. The Caltech researchers working in this center will explore the neural circuits and computations that underlie perception, thought, emotion, memory, decision making, and behavior. Scientists within the center will collaborate to tackle each of these brain systems, as well as the larger question of how these systems interact so seamlessly. The center will back their new and best ideas with seed funding, computing resources, and labs in which they can develop powerful new scientific tools.<br /> </li><li><strong>The Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience</strong><br /><br />The new Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, led by Viviana Gradinaru, Caltech assistant professor of biology and biological engineering and a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, will unite a contingent of Caltech researchers who are making discoveries about the brain's anatomy and development, how neurons communicate, and how processes in the brain can go wrong. In bringing these researchers together, the center will catalyze fundamental new approaches that will help us to understand how the brain works as a whole and to develop new instruments and methods for analyzing the roles that cells and molecules can play in perception, behavior, and disease.<br /> </li><li><strong>The Caltech Brain Imaging Center</strong><br /><br />The Caltech Brain Imaging Center (CBIC), originally founded in 2003 through a gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and directed by John O'Doherty, Caltech professor of psychology, will make available state-of-the-art instruments and expert staff to provide detailed measurements of the working brain. The CBIC has already made possible more than a decade of discoveries, helping faculty and students gain insight into how people learn and make economic decisions, how they perceive the world and experience conscious thought, and what makes up the neural basis of disorders such as autism, addiction, and congenital brain abnormalities.</li></ul><p>"Integrating the biology and the social science of how humans make decisions is one of the most promising frontiers for improving the human condition," says Jean-Laurent Rosenthal (PhD '88), the Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and the Ronald and Maxine Linde Leadership Chair of the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences. "The collaborations that began with the Caltech Brain Imaging Center helped create the new field of neuroeconomics. The Chen Institute at Caltech and its centers will allow us to make new advances to understand why some individuals are so much more successful than others in learning from their social environment."</p><p>"Modern neuroscience is one of the most interdisciplinary fields of human intellectual endeavor in the 21st century, and no single researcher or laboratory can master all of the diverse approaches necessary to solve the challenging problems of brain structure, function, and dysfunction," Anderson says. "The Chen Institute at Caltech provides an unprecedented opportunity for Caltech faculty and students in different fields to join forces to take on these challenges, by creating new collaborations at the interface between traditional scientific disciplines. Computational approaches—grounded in Caltech's traditional strength in the physical sciences—will provide a common glue that binds these collaborations together."</p><p>Adds Anderson, "Caltech's traditional strengths in basic biology and the physical sciences provide an ideal crucible in which to forge new tools that will crack the most fundamental problems of brain function, such as perception, emotion, cognition, and communication, as well as to develop radical new therapies for currently intractable brain disorders."</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://neuroscience.caltech.edu/" class="pr-link">Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech</a></div></div></div>Wed, 30 Nov 2016 20:13:17 +0000rbasu53124 at http://www.caltech.eduParkinson's Disease Linked to Microbiomehttp://www.caltech.edu/news/parkinsons-disease-linked-microbiome-53109
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-video file-video-youtube view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
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<h2 class="element-invisible">Caltech Researchers Link Parkinson’s Disease to Gut Bacteria</h2>
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<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/grid_9/s3/media-youtube/1O6-NLk1sXo.jpg?itok=2VxaK8tu" width="450" height="300" alt="Caltech Researchers Link Parkinson’s Disease to Gut Bacteria" /> </div>
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</a><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Professor Sarkis Mazmanian explains how he and postdoctoral scholar Tim Sampson discovered the link between the gut biome and Parkinson’s Disease.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Caltech scientists have discovered for the first time a functional link between bacteria in the intestines and Parkinson's disease (PD). The researchers show that changes in the composition of gut bacterial populations—or possibly gut bacteria themselves—are actively contributing to and may even cause the deterioration of motor skills that is the hallmark of this disease.</p><p>The work—which has profound implications for the treatment of PD—was performed in the laboratory of <a href="https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/sarkis-mazmanian">Sarkis Mazmanian</a>, the Luis B. and Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, and appears in the December 1 issue of <em>Cell.</em></p><p>PD affects 1 million people in the US and up to 10 million worldwide, making it the second most common neurodegenerative disease. Characteristic features of PD include symptoms such as tremors and difficulty walking, aggregation of a protein called alpha-synuclein (αSyn) within cells in the brain and gut, and the presence of inflammatory molecules called cytokines within the brain. In addition, 75 percent of people with PD have gastrointestinal (GI) abnormalities, primarily constipation.</p><p>"The gut is a permanent home to a diverse community of beneficial and sometimes harmful bacteria, known as the microbiome, that is important for the development and function of the immune and nervous systems," Mazmanian says. "Remarkably, 70 percent of all neurons in the peripheral nervous system—that is, not the brain or spinal cord—are in the intestines, and the gut's nervous system is directly connected to the central nervous system through the vagus nerve. Because GI problems often precede the motor symptoms by many years, and because most PD cases are caused by environmental factors, we hypothesized that bacteria in the gut may contribute to PD."</p><p>To test this, the researchers utilized mice that overproduce αSyn and display symptoms of Parkinson's. One group of mice had a complex consortium of gut bacteria; the others, called germ-free mice, were bred in a completely sterile environment at Caltech and thus lacked gut bacteria. The researchers had both groups of mice perform several tasks to measure their motor skills, such as running on treadmills, crossing a beam, and descending from a pole. The germ-free mice performed significantly better than the mice with a complete microbiome.</p><p>"This was the 'eureka' moment," says Timothy Sampson, a postdoctoral scholar in biology and biological engineering and first author on the paper. "The mice were genetically identical; both groups were making too much αSyn. The only difference was the presence or absence of gut microbiota. Once you remove the microbiome, the mice have normal motor skills even with the overproduction of αSyn."</p><p>"All three of the hallmark traits of Parkinson's were gone in the germ-free models," Sampson says. "Now we were quite confident that gut bacteria regulate, and are even required for, the symptoms of PD. So, we wanted to know how this happens."</p><p>When gut bacteria break down dietary fiber, they produce molecules called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as acetate and butyrate. Previous research has shown that these molecules also can activate immune responses in the brain. Thus, Mazmanian's group hypothesized that an imbalance in the levels of SCFAs regulates brain inflammation and other symptoms of PD. Indeed, when germ-free mice were fed SCFAs, cells called microglia—which are immune cells residing in the brain—became activated. Such inflammatory processes can cause neurons to malfunction or even die. In fact, germ-free mice fed SCFAs now showed motor disabilities and αSyn aggregation in regions of the brain linked to PD.</p><p>In a final set of experiments, Mazmanian and his group collaborated with Ali Keshavarzian, a gastroenterologist at Rush University in Chicago, to obtain fecal samples from patients with PD and from healthy controls. The human microbiome samples were transplanted into germ-free mice, which then remarkably began to exhibit symptoms of PD. These mice also showed higher levels of SCFAs in their feces. Transplanted fecal samples from healthy individuals, in contrast, did not trigger PD symptoms, unlike mice harboring gut bacteria from PD patients.</p><p>"This really closed the loop for us," Mazmanian says. "The data suggest that changes to the gut microbiome are likely more than just a consequence of PD. It's a provocative finding that needs to be further studied, but the fact that you can transplant the microbiome from humans to mice and transfer symptoms suggests that bacteria are a major contributor to disease."</p><p>The findings have important implications for the treatment of Parkinson's, the researchers say.</p><p>"For many neurological conditions, the conventional treatment approach is to get a drug into the brain. However, if PD is indeed not solely caused by changes in the brain but instead by changes in the microbiome, then you may just have to get drugs into the gut to help patients, which is much easier to do," Mazmanian says. Such drugs could be designed to modulate SCFA levels, deliver beneficial probiotics, or remove harmful organisms. "This new concept may lead to safer therapies with fewer side effects compared to current treatments."</p><p>The paper is titled <a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20161115-114016210">"Gut Microbiota Regulate Motor Deficits and Neuroinflammation in a Model of Parkinson's Disease."</a> Other Caltech coauthors include Taren Thron, Gnotobiotic Facility manager and research technician for the Mazmanian laboratory; undergraduate Gauri G. Shastri; postdoctoral scholar Collin Challis; graduate student Catherine E. Schretter; and Viviana Gradinaru, assistant professor of biology and biological engineering and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator. The work was funded by the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Field, the Heritage Medical Research Institute, and the National Institutes of Health. </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://mediaassets.caltech.edu/sm2016" class="pr-link">Download video &amp; images</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/dietary-fiber-and-microbes-change-gel-lines-our-gut-50994" class="pr-link">Dietary Fiber and Microbes Change the Gel That Lines Our Gut</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/when-beneficial-bacteria-knock-no-one-home-50659" class="pr-link">When Beneficial Bacteria Knock But No One is Home</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/mipact-reveals-infections-plain-view-52404" class="pr-link">MiPACT Reveals Infections in Plain View</a></div></div></div>Tue, 29 Nov 2016 18:32:59 +0000ldajose53109 at http://www.caltech.eduHuman Fear and the Social Brain: A Conversation with Dean Mobbshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/human-fear-and-social-brain-conversation-dean-mobbs-52963
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/DMobbs-FACULTY-HSS-4-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=e3A9uxsx" alt="Dean Mobbs" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dean Mobbs</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="https://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/dean-mobbs">Dean Mobbs</a>, a new assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience, studies what happens in our brains when we interact with others and when we are under threat. Mobbs, a native of Kettering, England, received his PhD from University College London and was an assistant professor at Columbia University before arriving at Caltech this fall. Having once worked as a research assistant at Stanford University, Mobbs is no stranger to the West Coast. We sat down with him to discuss the difference between fear and anxiety, the idea of safety in numbers, and his return to California after 12 years.</p><h3><strong>What is your research focus within neuroscience?</strong></h3><p>I focus on two areas. The first is using brain imaging to study neural responses to ecologically defined threats. We use fMRI [functional magnetic resonance imaging] and virtual games to put people in various situations—for example, one where they have to escape from a virtual predator, or where a predator is absent, but could appear at any time. These studies show that a potential threat—something that may happen in the near or distant future—evokes neural circuits associated with anxiety. This is in contrast to when a subject is presented with a threat that is present, which evokes different neural circuits that are associated with fear.</p><p>We also study the neural basis of social interaction—what happens when you place people into a social environment and how that alters their emotions. Animals live in groups, which is the most common way to protect yourself as an animal. In ecology, this is called risk dilution—or, simply put, "safety in numbers." So we study situations when people are under threat alone versus when they are with two and three other people. We've looked at groups as large as 15 people, and we find that the larger the group, the less fear people feel when they are in threatening situations.</p><h3><strong>What has your academic path been like?</strong></h3><p>For many years, I was working as a house painter in the United Kingdom. Coming from a working-class background, my younger brother—a psychiatrist in Oregon—and I are the only ones in my family who have gone to university. Therefore, my path has been defined as overcoming negative expectations and navigating a system that was closed to people of my geography and class.</p><p>I returned to school in my mid-twenties, obtaining a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Birmingham. This was followed by a research assistant position at Stanford University, studying neurogenetic disorders. In particular, I was looking at people with Williams Syndrome, which is characterized by an extreme propensity to be social despite other developmental deficits like low IQ. I then did my PhD at University College London where I studied the neural basis of emotion. I followed my PhD with a postdoctoral fellowship at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, and was also a research fellow at Clare Hall in the University of Cambridge.</p><p>After my PhD, I continued to refine my research question concerning the neural basis of ecologically defined threats. We looked at the neural effects of distant threats versus close ones—for example, tarantulas—how people "choke" or make mistakes under pressure, how envy increases our enjoyment at others' misfortunes, and the neural basis of vicarious reward or why we find it rewarding to see others win money.</p><p>My path through neuroscience was motivated because I fell in love with clever experiments in social psychology and affective science. That was around the time when psychology was becoming more biological because of brain imaging. Since I've been a PI, I have been merging these fields.</p><h3><strong>What excites you about being at Caltech?</strong></h3><p>What excites me about Caltech is the intellectual environment. It's a joy to work here. I am also excited by the approaches that the economists take. In my opinion, the best social neuroscience research takes an economic approach, because it uses well-established economic models and game theory, and applies mathematical models to decision-making processes. Coming from a psychology background, I have the opportunity to interact with people who have different ways of thinking about these questions and take a broad approach to decision making—researchers in political science, psychology, neuroscience—and to bounce ideas off of a rich, diverse pool of people.</p><h3><strong>What do you like to do in your free time?</strong></h3><p>I have a 17-month-old daughter at home so mostly I am enjoying being a father. I also love taking trips to explore California; it is truly an amazing part of the world, and I don't think I've stopped smiling since I've arrived. </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/knowing-vote-50204" class="pr-link">Knowing the Vote</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/surprising-results-game-theory-studies-42926" class="pr-link">Surprising Results from Game Theory Studies</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/arc-abolition-52415" class="pr-link">The Arc of Abolition</a></div></div></div>Fri, 11 Nov 2016 22:29:42 +0000ldajose52963 at http://www.caltech.eduThe Wiring of Fly Brains: Mapping Cell-to-Cell Connectionshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/wiring-fly-brains-mapping-cell-cell-connections-52834
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Whitney Clavin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/CLois-Fly_Cell_Network-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=OH4nip58" alt="fly brain and nervous system" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Microscopy images of a fly larval brain and nerve cord. The fluorescently tagged red cells have a signal on their surface that induces any cell that receives these signals to glow green. In this image, a type of glial cells (shown in red at left), make contact with a set of nearby neurons, triggering them to express a green fluorescent protein (middle). The picture at right shows the merged images of both red and green cells, and reveals which neurons are connected to the glial cells.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Lois Laboratory/Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Biologists at Caltech have developed a new system for visualizing connections between individual cells in fly brains. The finding may ultimately lead to "wiring diagrams" of fly and other animal brains, which would help researchers understand how neurons are connected.</p><p>"To understand how the brain works we need to know how neurons are wired to each other," says <a href="http://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/carlos-lois">Carlos Lois</a>, research professor in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering at Caltech and principal investigator of the new research, which appears in the November issue of the journal <em>Development</em>. "This is similar to understanding how a computer works by looking at how transistors are connected."</p><p>Animals are made up of different types of specialized cells. In order for an animal to function, the cells have to be able to communicate with each other. For example, neurons directly communicate with muscle cells so that an animal can move. In diseases such as cancer, this communication process can go awry: when tumors metastasize, they no longer "listen" to neighboring cells that tell them not to grow. Instead, the cancer cells grow uncontrollably and migrate to other parts of the body.</p><p>In the new study, Lois and colleagues created a synthetic system for visualizing communicating cells in the fruit fly <em>Drosophila</em> <em>melanogaster</em>. Though this initial study focused on the brain, the system could be applied to imaging networks of cells in any other organ.</p><p>The technique depends on two groups of cells: the emitters, which are those that give off a signal, and the receivers, which are those that register the signal. Emitters glow red, while any cell they are in contact with (receivers) glow green. The researchers take pictures of the red and green cells through a microscope, and the resulting patterns reveal how cells in the brain "talk" to each other.</p><p>"It's like the six degrees of separation game, where you can find a connection between anybody and a celebrity in six steps or less. But we start with one degree at a time," says Lois. "First we look at one type of emitter cell and figure out which cells it is connected to. Then we go to those cells that were connected to the initial emitter cells and, in turn, find out which cells they are connected to."</p><p>The system works through genetic manipulations of cells. The researchers genetically alter designated emitter cells in fly brains—various neurons or glial cells in this case—to express two independent proteins. First, the emitter cells are made to express a red fluorescent protein, which allows the researchers to identify the cells' location. Next, the emitter cells express a molecule called a ligand that can activate receptors on receiver cells. All of the cells in the fly brain have the potential to become receiver cells: they are engineered to express a green fluorescent protein but only when activated by emitter cells. In other words, the red, ligand-producing cells make any cell they are in contact with turn green.</p><p>Among other applications, the system could be used to trace the path of cancer cells as they migrate through an animal's body. "You could see how a cancer cell left a tumor from its site of origin and how it entered a particular organ," says Lois.</p><p>In addition, the cells can be genetically manipulated in such a way to reveal not just the connections between cells but also their functions. For example, by rewiring the neurons in an animal's brain, researchers could use the new system to study the role of those neurons.</p><p>"We can understand how a computer works by changing the way that the transistors are connected in a circuit, and observing how the output of the computer changes," says Lois. "With the system that we have designed, we can modify how cells interact with each other in an animal, essentially rewire them, and examine how behaviors change as a result."</p><p>Lois and his colleagues ultimately would like to use their new tool to create wiring diagrams of fly and mouse brains on a neuron-to-neuron basis. That goal may be years off but would provide clues to the complex workings of human brains and the diseases, such as cancer, that result when cell communication breaks down.</p><p>The <em>Development </em>study, titled <a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160927-101143198">"Monitoring cell-cell contacts in vivo in transgenic animals,"</a> was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The lead author is Ting Hao Huang, a visiting graduate student at Caltech.</p></div></div></div>Mon, 31 Oct 2016 22:18:44 +0000wclavin52834 at http://www.caltech.eduThird Round of BRAIN Fundinghttp://www.caltech.edu/news/third-round-brain-funding-52766
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/BRAIN-Initiative-2016-NEWS-WEB_0.jpg?itok=FKdWdDXT" alt="Design of brain" /><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Shutterstock</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>On October 13, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced its third round of funding for President Obama's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnology (BRAIN) Initiative. More than 100 new awards were given, totaling just over $150 million, nearly doubling the NIH's investment in the BRAIN Initiative. This year, six Caltech researchers have received funding for their projects studying the brain.</p><p><strong>"Neuronal Substrates of Hemodynamic Signals in the Prefrontal Cortex"</strong></p><p style="margin-left:.5in;"><em><a href="https://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/john-p-odoherty">John O'Doherty</a>, </em><em>professor of psychology; Director, Caltech Brain Imaging Center</em></p><p style="margin-left:.5in;"><em><a href="https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/doris-y-tsao">Doris Tsao</a> (BS '96), </em><em>professor of biology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute</em></p><p>Along with Matthew Howard of the University of Iowa and Daeyeol Lee at Yale University, O'Doherty and Tsao received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to study the relationship between neuronal signals and fMRI responses in the prefrontal cortex during value-based decision making.</p><p><strong>"Dexterous BMIs for tetraplegic humans utilizing somatosensory cortex stimulation"</strong></p><p><em> <a href="https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/richard-andersen">Richard Andersen</a>, </em><em>James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience</em></p><p>Andersen received funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to develop a neural prosthetic to assist tetraplegic patients to dexterously control a robotic hand with recorded brain signals. Research collaborators include Charles Liu of University of Southern California and Mindy Aisen from Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.</p><p><strong>"Deep brain photoacoustic tomography at single-neuron resolution using arrays of photonic emitters and high-frequency ultrasound transducers"</strong></p><p style="margin-left:.5in;"><a href="http://www.eas.caltech.edu/people/5770/profile"><em>Lihong </em></a><em><a href="http://www.eas.caltech.edu/people/5770/profile">Wang</a>, </em><em>Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering</em></p><p style="margin-left:.5in;"><em><a href="https://pma.caltech.edu/content/michael-l-roukes">Michael Roukes</a>, </em><em>Robert M. Abbey Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering</em></p><p>Along with Kenneth Shepard of Columbia University, Wang and Roukes received a grant from NINDS to develop an advanced high-speed, high-resolution nanoprobe-based imaging technology based on high-frequency photoacoustic computed tomography that will enable observation of the structure and activity deep in small animal brains with single-neuron resolution.</p><p><strong>"Wide deployment of massively multiplexed nanosystems for brain activity mapping"</strong></p><p style="margin-left:.5in;"><em>Michael Roukes, </em><em>Robert M. Abbey Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering</em></p><p>Roukes and Kenneth Shepard of Columbia also received funding from NINDS to develop sophisticated neural nanoprobe systems to enable exploration of the dynamics of brain circuits in many species, through highly multiplexed electrical stimulation and recording of neural activity, local chemical sensing of neuromodulators, and optogenetic stimulation of brain circuits at the cellular scale.</p><p><strong>"Molecular Functional Ultrasound for Non-Invasive Imaging and Image-Guided Recording and Modulation of Neural Activity"</strong></p><p><em> <a href="https://www.cce.caltech.edu/content/mikhail-g-shapiro">Mikhail Shapiro</a>, </em><em>assistant professor of chemical engineering</em></p><p>Along with coinvestigators Richard Andersen and Mickael Tanter of ESPCI in Paris, Shapiro received funding from NINDS to develop improved ultrasound techniques to monitor neural activity.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/nih-announces-second-round-brain-funding-48135" class="pr-link">NIH Announces Second Round of BRAIN Funding</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-receive-nih-brain-funding-43895" class="pr-link">Caltech Researchers Receive NIH BRAIN Funding</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/nsf-brain-funding-awarded-caltech-neuroscientist-47517" class="pr-link">NSF BRAIN Funding Awarded to Caltech Neuroscientist</a></div></div></div>Mon, 24 Oct 2016 20:33:36 +0000ldajose52766 at http://www.caltech.eduHard-Wiring Memorieshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/hard-wiring-memories-52621
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/MKennedy-synGAP%26PDZs_Web_pre-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=uZSXlcQs" alt="Pre-phosphorylation" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">When a synapse has not been strongly activated, addition and removal of receptors (AMPARs) from the membrane are in equilibrium. Receptors diffuse toward the synaptic junction where they can be captured by binding to scaffold molecules in the postsynaptic density.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Courtesy of M. Kennedy</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Many people remember exactly what they were doing on September 11, 2001, and some even easily remember exactly what they ate for lunch yesterday. Memories are formed when the neural networks that are active during an event become hard-wired into the cellular machinery of our brain. A group of scientists at Caltech, led by Allen and Lenabelle Davis Professor of Biology <a href="https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/mary-b-kennedy">Mary Kennedy</a> and postdoctoral fellow Ward Walkup have now discovered how one protein helps to create memories in the brain. A <a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160919-144341349">paper</a> describing the findings appears in the September 29 issue of the journal <em>eLife</em>.</p><p>Memories are formed when an event or perception triggers the transfer of small chemicals called neurotransmitters between brain cells across junctions called synapses. Every time the same set of synapses connecting a particular group of neurons is activated together, the synapses get stronger, forming a memory.</p><p>"When a memory is strong, if any one of the neurons that was involved gets activated, there's a much greater tendency for the whole memory to come back," says Kennedy. "Sometimes certain smells or a certain location can trigger an entire memory."</p><p>The synapse has two sides: the presynaptic side, from which neurotransmitters originate, and the postsynaptic side. At the postsynaptic side, there is a scaffold of proteins called the postsynaptic density (PSD) that is attached to the postsynaptic membrane. Receptors for the neurotransmitters are embedded into the PSD. "Strengthening" of the synapse to form a memory requires addition of more receptors to the synaptic membrane, and then direct attachment of the receptors to specific locations on a scaffold protein in the PSD. More receptors in the PSD result in a larger electrical response when the neurotransmitters reach the postsynaptic side. This leads to a more complete recollection of the memory.</p><p>"We wanted to know what triggers an increase in receptors, and how they are stabilized so that they stay embedded within the PSD," says Kennedy.</p><p>The addition of receptors is regulated by a set of enzymes near the postsynaptic membrane. The group focused on one particular protein called synGAP. In a previous paper, the Kennedy group discovered that when a phosphate molecule is added to synGAP in a process called phosphorylation, the modified protein begins to modulate the balance of two other proteins, called Ras and Rap. More activated Ras produces addition of more receptors to the postsynaptic membrane; whereas, more activated Rap has the opposite effect, causing receptors to be removed from the membrane. By causing synGAP to inactivate more Rap proteins than Ras proteins, phosphorylation of synGAP potentiates—or initiates—the addition of more receptors to the membrane.</p><p>Now, the group has discovered a completely separate function of synGAP—as a placeholder within the PSD that competes with and reduces the number of receptors that can be bound there.</p><p>"We found that when synGAP becomes phosphorylated, it is released from particular protein binding sites within the PSD, which frees up space for receptors to bind," says Kennedy. "So in summary, synGAP both ushers more receptors into the membrane, and makes room for them to bind directly to the PSD."</p><p>A few years ago, geneticists found that humans who are missing one copy of the synGAP gene—a condition called synGAP haploinsufficiency­—have cognitive disabilities that are usually accompanied by autism and epilepsy. The loss of one copy of the gene causes them to have about half as much synGAP in their brain as is normal.</p><p>"Our work takes steps towards understanding why synGAP haploinsufficiency leads to such serious neurological disorders," says Kennedy. "Understanding this complex process at the molecular level allows for the possibility of developing much better pharmaceutical agents."</p><p>Funding for the work came from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Hicks Foundation, the Allen and Lenabelle Davis Foundation, and the Beckman Institute. In addition to Kennedy and Walkup, other authors on the paper are postdoctoral scholar Tara Mastro; former scientific researcher Leslie Schenker; Jost Vielmetter, the director of the Protein Expression Center; former undergraduates Rebecca Hu (BS '15) and Meera Reghunathan (BS '15); former Amgen Scholar Ariella Iancu; and assistant scientific analyst Barry Dylan Bannon.</p></div></div></div>Tue, 11 Oct 2016 21:08:13 +0000ldajose52621 at http://www.caltech.eduGradinaru Honored by Max Planck Florida Institute for Neurosciencehttp://www.caltech.edu/news/gradinaru-honored-max-planck-florida-institute-neuroscience-52525
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/image003%5B5%5D.jpg?itok=0XjQ73f7" alt="photo of Viviana Gradinaru" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Viviana Gradinaru</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) has named <a href="http://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/viviana-gradinaru">Viviana Gradinaru</a> (BS '05), assistant professor of biology and biological engineering and Heritage Principal Investigator, as recipient of the inaugural Peter Gruss Young Investigator Award. The award pays homage to former Max Planck Society president Peter Gruss and is given biennially to recognize a young neuroscience investigator for "significant contributions to the scientific community through collaboration, creativity, and curiosity-driven research," according to an MPFI press release.</p><p>Gradinaru's research focuses on developing and using optogenetics (controlling genetically modified cells with light) and tissue clearing (rendering tissues and organs transparent) to better understand the brain circuitry underlying neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/biology-made-simpler-clear-tissues-43383">Tissue-clearing methods</a> developed in her lab at Caltech have been recently applied to study <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/partners-innovation-52507">cancerous tumors</a> as well as <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/mipact-reveals-infections-plain-view-52404">sputum</a> from cystic fibrosis patients. <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/delivering-genes-across-blood-brain-barrier-49679">Earlier this year</a>, Gradinaru and her group devised a way to modify a virus to deliver genes to cells in the nervous system.</p><p>Gradinaru was <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/gradinaru-and-benardini-receive-presidential-early-career-awards-49879">honored</a> this year by President Obama as one of the recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.</p><p>Gradinaru was nominated for the award by her former PhD advisor, Karl Deisseroth, D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.</p><p>"I cannot imagine a more compelling, deserving and meritorious recipient of the Peter Gruss Young Investigator Award," said Deisseroth in the press release. "Her dedication and leadership will continue to benefit the global neuroscience community."</p><p>The Peter Gruss Young Investigator Award will be presented to Gradinaru during MPFI's <a href="https://www.maxplanckflorida.org/sunposium/">Sunposium 2017</a> conference, February 13–14, 2017, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. As the award recipient, Gradinaru will be invited to deliver a plenary lecture at the conference.</p></div></div></div>Tue, 04 Oct 2016 23:46:07 +0000ldajose52525 at http://www.caltech.eduPostdoc Named L'Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/postdoc-named-lor-al-usa-women-science-fellow-52349
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Moriel-Zelikowsky-Caltech-LOrealUSA-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=L7ZVay8b" alt="photo of Moriel Zelikowsky" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Moriel Zelikowsky</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: L&#039;Oréal USA</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Moriel Zelikowsky, a postdoctoral scholar in biology and biological engineering at Caltech, has been named a 2016 L'Oréal USA For Women in Science fellow. The fellowship, now in its thirteenth year, annually awards five female postdoctoral scientists with grants of $60,000 each.</p><p>"I have been lucky to be surrounded by women and men who are highly committed to increasing the representation and success of women in science," Zelikowsky says. "Mentoring women is extremely important to me and the reason is simple—the best model for being a woman in science is seeing other woman in science who have done it successfully."</p><p>"Moriel is simply extraordinary," says <a href="https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/david-j-anderson">David Anderson</a>, the Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Zelikowsky joined the Anderson lab in 2011. "She has not only expanded the intellectual breadth of my lab through her background in behavioral neuroscience and psychology, but she has also had an enormous impact on lab morale and cohesion, through her boundless energy, humanity, and generosity," he adds. "Her research is breaking new ground in understanding the long-term effects of chronic stress on the brain, and has led to some very unexpected and exciting findings with important relevance to human mental health. The L'Oréal award recognizes her tremendous potential as a researcher, leader, mentor, and role-model for women in science, and will help her to realize this potential."</p><p>Zelikowsky investigates how emotionally significant events such as trauma, or chronic stress, are encoded by neuronal populations in the brain, as well as how those neurons mediate the effects of stress on subsequent emotional and social behavior. She and her colleagues have identified and implicated a population of genetically defined neuromodulators—chemicals that modulate neurons—in the control of stress. By understanding how particular types of cells within distinct brain regions control stress, Zelikowsky aims to promote a novel and more targeted approach for the treatment of stress and anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and associated disturbances in behavior.</p><p>"The brain undergoes significant change following an intense emotional event, and these alterations in neural processing and dynamics give rise to maladaptive behaviors," she says. "It is my hope that my research will contribute to a global shift towards increased cellular precision in our approach towards the treatment of mental health disorders."</p><p>In addition to her research at Caltech, Zelikowsky started a group called Women in Learning, which puts together an annual lunch as a satellite event to a larger learning and memory conference. Each year, a senior female scientist is invited to share her story of being a woman in science. The group is already expanding to include members across a number of countries, with plans to start Canadian and Australian Chapters.</p><p>"While science is largely about the quest to answer a question which drives you, I have always felt it is as much—if not more—about the people who inspire you, challenge you to think bigger, and engage with you on a daily basis. Science is about chasing that challenge," she says.</p><p>Zelikowsky plans to use the L'Oréal grant to finish her research project in the Anderson lab, along with May Hui (BS '16), a recent Caltech alum and former SURF student under Zelikowsky and Anderson.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/nih-announces-second-round-brain-funding-48135" class="pr-link">NIH Announces Second Round of BRAIN Funding</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/mapping-neurons-improve-treatment-parkinsons-50521" class="pr-link">Mapping Neurons to Improve the Treatment of Parkinson's</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-biologists-identify-gene-helps-regulate-sleep-49838" class="pr-link">Caltech Biologists Identify Gene That Helps Regulate Sleep</a></div></div></div>Wed, 21 Sep 2016 17:14:43 +0000ldajose52349 at http://www.caltech.eduPuzzle Maker: Building a Chemical from the Ground Uphttp://www.caltech.edu/news/puzzle-maker-building-chemical-ground-51836
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Whitney Clavin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Reisman-P16083_O_a_2-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=p4VTl6k0" alt="" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">X-ray crystal structure of a key intermediate in the Reisman team&#039;s synthesis of ryanodol.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Reisman Lab/Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>For chemists like <a href="http://www.cce.caltech.edu/content/sarah-e-reisman">Sarah Reisman</a>, professor of chemistry at Caltech, synthesizing molecules is like designing your own jigsaw puzzle. You know what the solved puzzle looks like—the molecule—and your job is to figure out the best pieces to use to put it together.</p><p>"We look at the molecule we want to build and think about how to cut it up into pieces. When we are in the lab, the question is: do your puzzle pieces go back together?" says Reisman.</p><p>Synthesizing molecules is a vital part of many chemical manufacturing industries, from producing fuels to dyes used in flatscreen TVs with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. Scientists also create molecules from scratch to better understand how they work, as well as to design new drugs.</p><p>Reisman's team has been busy trying to crack the puzzle of the insecticide ryanodine, a complex molecule first isolated from a tropical plant in the 1940s. Ryanodine paralyzes insects by binding to a class of calcium-channel receptors called ryanodine receptors. In humans, these receptors play critical roles in muscle and neuronal function. Mutations in the genes that encode ryanodine receptors can lead to disease, including certain types of heart arrhythmias and possibly Alzheimer's disease.</p><p>As a stepping stone on the path to synthesizing ryanodine, Reisman, along with graduate student Kangway Chuang and postdoctoral researcher Chen Xu, first targeted a similar molecule, ryanodol. Ryanodol previously has been made by two other research groups: In the late 1970s, a research team made ryanodol in 41 steps, and in 2014, another team synthesized the chemical in 35 steps.</p><p>Now, reporting in the journal <em>Science</em>, Reisman's team has devised a route to synthesize ryanodol in just 15 steps. This significantly cuts the time required to make ryanodol, and presumably also ryanodine, which Reisman's team will try to synthesize next.</p><p>"Once you have the platform for making both of these molecules, it opens up a lot of possibilities," says Reisman. "In general, it is important that we know how to put molecules together. Without this, it's tough to think about how to study the biological function of molecules and develop new drugs."</p><p>Ryanodol and ryanodine belong to a class of molecules called terpenes. These are naturally occurring molecules that commonly contain between 10 and 30 carbon atoms. For example, 10-carbon terpenes include R-carvone, the molecule behind the flavor in spearmint leaves; and pinene, which is derived from pine trees and is the primary chemical in the paint solvent turpentine. The antimalarial drug artemisinin, derived from the wormwood shrub, is a 15-carbon terpene.</p><p>Ryanodol and ryanodine are some of the more chemically complex 20-carbon terpenes, with five different carbon rings and many carbon–oxygen bonds.</p><p>"The simplest forms of terpenes give you fragrances and flavors, but as you build upon the structure, you get more interesting biological compounds like ryanodol and ryanodine," says Reisman.</p><p>There are two big challenges in the synthesis of ryanodol. First, chemists have to build the five rings that make up the carbon backbone of the molecule, and second, they have to precisely decorate seven of the carbons with "OH" (or hydroxyl) groups, the chemical structure found in alcohols. Previous syntheses of ryanodol required multiple chemical reactions to introduce the OH groups, adding extra steps. Reisman's synthesis develops new reactions that brings in two or three alcohols at a time—a key discovery of the new synthesis that makes it more efficient. </p><p>The Reisman team began with a simple commercially available terpene, then attached two of the OH groups. They then built up four of the five carbons rings in a series of reactions. Next, the team brought in two more OH groups, and a precursor to an OH group, again in a single step. The fifth and final ring was formed in two steps using conditions developed in a previous synthesis, which also introduced the remaining two OH groups.</p><p>"Five of the oxygen atoms are brought in with just two reactions. That is the key to streamlining the synthesis," says Reisman. "It's like building from Legos using the larger pieces instead of the small ones. You get there faster."</p><p>Reisman's team is now working on the final piece of the puzzle: creating ryanodine from ryanodol. They think the solution not only will help them to make ryanodine but also aid in the synthesis of new, designer analogues. This will lead to more precise studies of the ryanodine receptors and the possible development of drugs that can target them.</p><p>The <em>Science </em>study, entitled <a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160630-153826956">"A 15-Step Synthesis of (+)-Ryanodol,"</a> is also authored by Kangway V. Chuang and Chen Xu of Caltech. Reisman is a Heritage Principal Investigator, and the research is funded by the National Science Foundation, Shenzhen UV-ChemTech Inc., the National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly, and Novartis.</p></div></div></div>Thu, 25 Aug 2016 17:13:38 +0000wclavin51836 at http://www.caltech.eduDeveloping Realistic Models of Financial Markets: A Conversation with Lawrence Jinhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/developing-realistic-models-financial-markets-conversation-lawrence-jin-51680
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kimm Fesenmaier</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Jin-Lawrence-FACULTY-1584-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=qxMc8ItZ" alt="" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lawrence Jin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/lawrence-jin"><em>Lawrence Jin</em></a><em> (MS '06)</em><em> is a new assistant professor of finance at Caltech. Born in Beijing, China, Jin studied physics and mathematics at Tsinghua University, earning bachelor's degrees in both fields in three years. In 2005, he came to the United States and earned a master's degree in electrical engineering at Caltech. Then he tried something completely different, spending a few years working as a research and trading analyst on Wall Street. Ultimately, he opted to pursue academic finance and earned his doctorate in financial economics at Yale University.</em></p><p><em>Jin's arrival at Caltech marks an important step in building a finance faculty to support Caltech's <a href="http://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/business-economics-and-management">Business, Economics, and Management (BEM)</a> option and to expand the research activities of the </em><a href="https://www.lindeinstitute.caltech.edu/"><em>Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences</em></a><em>. In the spring term, Jin taught courses in Behavioral Finance (BEM 114) and Asset Pricing Theory (SS 215).</em></p><p><em>We recently sat down with Jin to discuss the types of problems he is interested in, how psychology and neuroscience can help inform financial models, and what brought him back to Caltech.</em></p><h3>What is the focus of your research?</h3><p>My main research area is behavioral finance, a very active field within the broader field of economics and finance. We try to develop psychologically plausible and realistic models to better understand financial markets.</p><h3>When you say "behavioral" in this context, what do you mean?</h3><p>Actual human behavior. For instance, people are not necessarily making fully rational decisions using all the available information they can possibly obtain; they cannot pay attention to every single thing they encounter. And they have some psychological biases when forming opinions of the financial market.</p><p>The key questions are: In what way are people systematically irrational? And how can we model irrationality and its interaction with other economic forces to better understand financial markets? When addressing these questions, we try to discipline ourselves by understanding people's behavior through the lens of psychology, behavioral sciences, biology, and neuroscience.</p><h3>Can you give some examples of the types of problems you study?</h3><p>One example is to understand stock market fluctuations and other asset pricing phenomena through the lens of psychological biases.</p><p>One type of psychological bias is something called sample-size neglect, the notion that many investors mistakenly think small samples can be just as representative as large samples. In other words, investors tend to draw a conclusion <em>too</em> quickly. For instance, if you see a sequence of good stock market returns, it may just be random. But if you think that you are actually seeing a trend, you might positively revise your expectations of future returns. And it turns out that you revised your expectations too quickly. This is an example that links sample-size neglect to a finance application.</p><p>It is important to note that the behavioral approach to study financial markets is not an isolated approach. Sometimes it interacts with other things like financial frictions.</p><h3>What are financial frictions in this context?</h3><p>In financial markets, there are many frictions. For instance, ordinary households typically do not invest directly in opaque markets such as the market of mortgage-backed securities. Instead, they invest through mutual fund managers. With this specific structure, some conflicts of interest may arise. For example, mutual fund managers might care more about making money for themselves than helping their clients. Such frictions ultimately could interact with behavioral biases, and they can amplify each other, especially during bad times like financial crises.</p><p>Another example is transaction costs that you need to pay a broker when you buy and sell stocks and bonds. One finding in finance is that when individual investors decide to actively manage their own stock portfolios, on average, they underperform. In other words, if you instead give your money to an index fund, you are likely to do better.</p><p>Financial economists try to understand why individual investors trade so much on their own even though they underperform index funds.</p><p>One behavioral explanation is that investors may be overconfident in their ability to invest. There is a very nice paper by Mark Grinblatt [UCLA Anderson School of Management] and Matti Keloharju [Aalto University School of Business in Finland] that uses data from Finland to show that people with a higher level of overconfidence trade more. In Finland, all of the 18-year-old male citizens are required to go into the military. When they do so, they take aptitude tests and behavioral tests. Overconfidence in this paper is measured as their self-reported confidence based on the behavioral tests minus how confident they should be based on their performance on the aptitude tests. The interesting thing is that this measurement of overconfidence predicts how frequent people trade stocks several years later when they open their brokerage accounts. And those who are more overconfident trade more and have poorer trading performance.</p><p>Understanding behavioral biases such as overconfidence is helpful not only for understanding financial markets, but also for helping people to make better decisions—things like saving more money for retirement and keeping their jobs.</p><h3>Can you share some results from some of your recent work?</h3><p>I am very interested in understanding the origin of financial bubbles and crashes. We study why bubbles—for instance, housing bubbles—arise in the first place and also, along with the formation of bubbles, why people begin to trade more. How long is a bubble going to last? When and why do bubbles eventually crash? And what are the consequences?</p><p>Our model is trying to answer these questions through something called extrapolative expectations. Consistent with the sample-size neglect we discussed earlier, extrapolative expectation is the notion that after seeing a sequence of good stock returns, many real-world investors tend to believe that the stock market is going to keep rising in value</p><p>In this model, a fundamental shock is needed for a bubble to start—something like good news about the market. Those signals create a positive price impact on the market, so market prices go up. Then our extrapolators, people who have these extrapolative expectations, start to get more and more excited. They take the initial increase in market prices too seriously, and their self-enforcing beliefs end up helping prices to keep going up. However, as the initial good news that got people excited in the first place recede into the distant past, extrapolators' irrational exuberance diminishes, and the whole bubble unravels—you get a crash.</p><h3>How does the idea of frenzied trading come into play?</h3><p>There is lots of empirical evidence that suggests when bubbles occur, you see a lot of trading in financial markets: investors buy and sell lots of stocks. Economists have had a hard time explaining this.</p><p>We have this idea, supported by some neuroscience studies, that when investors are looking at a stock market as a bubble is being created, their trading decisions are influenced by two conflicting signals. On the one hand, investors see a positive trend, and their extrapolative expectations tell them that the price is going to keep going up. This is what we call a growth signal. On the other hand, investors are also aware of the fact that the stock market may be overvalued, and therefore it may crash in the near future. We call this a value signal. Given that the value signal and the growth signal typically tell investors to trade in the opposite direction, investors may slightly change the weights they put on these conflicting signals over time¾we call these changes in weight "wavering." </p><p>As the bubble develops, these two signals endogenously become very large, or extreme.</p><p>And as a result, a small degree of wavering could generate a lot of trading volume.</p><p>Intuitively, you can think of the value signal and growth signal as two voices in your head telling you different things. During normal periods, the voices are speaking in pretty low tones. In this case, you may be wavering, but that does not change your actions much. But during bubble periods, it is like you have two crazy voices screaming at you, telling you radically different things. Then even the same small degree of wavering is going to cause lots of trading.</p><p>The idea of wavering we came up with turns out to be very helpful in generating lots of trading volume during bubbles.</p><h3>Do you plan to collaborate with anyone in particular at Caltech?</h3><p>On the one hand, my research is very structural and mathematical. On the other hand, it requires very good intuition about financial markets. To get that intuition right, sometimes you need to work with psychologists, neuroscientists, biologists, and behavioral economists. Caltech has a lot of strength in these other areas that can definitely help me to build my research.</p><h3>Were there any other factors that led you back to Caltech? </h3><p>I really like the idea of having an impact on talented students, and Caltech clearly has very high-quality undergraduate and graduate students. I think it is going to be fun to teach the students and do research with them.</p></div></div></div>Wed, 10 Aug 2016 21:54:02 +0000ksvitil51680 at http://www.caltech.edu